Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1887-11-25
Cooperation in the United States.

We make to-day very important contri
button to the discussion of the practicability
of the cooperative system as applied to thi'
country. 1t consists in carefully gathered
and uncolored reports Of the actual work
ing of cooperative enterprises in sixteen
cities in different parts of the Union.
These reports show that, whatever tissue
cess in England, the results of the expert
ment have, on the whole, been very unsat
isfactory In the United States. Lack of bust
ness skill and judgment, contentious among
managers, and inability to compete with the
regular trade have been the causes of the
failure OF most of the undertakings. In the
cases, too, where the enterprises have been
successful, like disaster was often only pre-
vented by substantially changing them into
private or joint.stock concerns doing bust
ness after the ordinary methods. In Newark,
for instance, one of the earliest efforts at
&C. cooperation was the establishment of a CO.
operative brewery by twelve German work.
men; but when it proved successful they
quarreled among themselves, and the re-
suit was that they sold out their shares TO
one Of their number, who has grown rich by
running the brewery as his private enter
prise. Attempts at the cooperative manu-.
facture of saddlers' tools, of shoes, and of
harness resulted in about the same way. AS
they became prosperous they were turned
into private or joint.stock concerns, in
which there was scarcely vestige of the
co operative principle on which they were
founded.
This, of course, is one of the greasest dan
gers to which the system is exposed in its
practical application. The men most COM
petent TO run the enterprises begin to get
tired of the cooperative council, which ham
pers them in the execution OF their plans,
quarrels ensue, and the sole control passes
into their hands, SO that eventually the bust
ness becomes theirs exclusively. 1t is sim
ply another example Of the superior propel-
ling power Of selfish interest, as compared
with the desire for the common good.
Such instances of its perverson seem only
to have occurred when the co operative sys
tenn has been applied to production, an ap-
plication which, so far, has hardly been
more successful in England than in this
country. The experiment o. the co-opera.
tive store for the sale Of goods has worked
somewhat better with US, though only in
comparatively few cases, and nowhere with
anything approaching what is represented
as the English experience Here in New
York it has been pretty complete failure
from the first, and in Brooklyn, Newark,
L OitNtlduu anu DUobOH Jut ICoulIo
have not been more satisfactory. The re-
ports from Buffalo, Trenton, and Milwau
kee are more encouraging, though in none
of the sixteen cities covered by our investi-
CATION has anything rivaling the success of
the CO cooperative stores of England been
achieved AT best they have only been sue
cessful in comparison with the common
failure
One great, if not the chief obstacle to the
success OF the CO operative store in this coun
try is the small percentage of profit at
which private dealers, and especially the
large shops, sell their goods, and the ability
their greater cash capital gives them Of oh
tanning goods cheaper The CO operative
store started in New York by Miss Kate
Field, it will be remembered, went into
bankruptcy because II could not begin to
compete with private concerns in the same
business. With insufficient capital and
doubtful credit, it was obliged to pay more
for articles than the prices at which the
others could afford to sell them.
In u country where the retail business is
conducted on the cash system, as IL is so
generally here, and where the margin of
profit can therefore be kept low, there does
not seem TO be much chance for the CO op-
erative store, especially as sharp competi-
ton also tends to so cheaper prices as to
prevent any concern from becoming largely,
or even considerably profitable, unless its
trade is very great.-New York Sun